COMMENT

Indian Democracy In Peril

Janardhana Poojari

The dastardly attack on Parliament is unprecedented. The entire nation saw it as an assault on Indian democracy, Thankfully our leaders, including the Prime Minister, Shri A.B. Vajpayee and the Leader of the Opposition and Indian National Congress President, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, were not there when the terrorists struck. The objective of the terrorists who were behind the attack was very clear — to wipe out the country’s top leadership and that too in the temple of democracy.

The Government of India failed to protect Parliament and the Parliamentarians who represent India. It appears that the Government did not learn from the attack on Red Fort, in Kargil and on the J&K Assembly. There was definite information from the Mumbai Police to the Union Home Ministry of possible attack a month ago. The evening before the attack on Parliament, i.e. 12/12/2001, the Prime Minister Shri Vajpayee, did make a statement in Mumbai of possible attack on Parliament. Why did the Government not take cognizance of this input and why it did not take adequate steps to prevent the attack?

This attack should be described as the defining moment in our history. When the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon were attacked, the Americans declared it as the defining moment in the history of the world. Mr. Advani, Union Home Minister, gave his first reaction and told the nation that the attack did not amount to breach of security. The statement is shocking.

The nation wants to know from the Union Home Minister as to how and why armed men with explosives and RDX could freely travel on the VIP streets of Delhi without detection. How could they come up to the front gate of Parliament? Of course, luckily our brave security personnel by sacrificing their lives protected the symbol of democracy of their motherland.

Mr. Advani and Mr. George Fernandes have demanded and justified passing the Prevention of Terrorists Ordinance (POTO) Bill forgetting that the POTO Ordinance has been is force since 50 days prior to the attack on Parliament. If inspite of this the terrorist attack on Parliament could take place, there is no case for converting this Ordinance into a Bill.

It is crystal clear from the attack on Parliament that it is not law but implementation of law, which can protect the lives of Indian people. It is the implementing authorities that should be effective. It is the governance that saves the country. The existing laws are sufficient to deal with terrorism. The government cannot run away from its responsibility. This is a monumental failure. Indian Republic is not safe in the hands of the present government.

We had TADA up to 1995 when the Parliament allowed it to lapse. The reason for allowing it to lapse was that it had failed to serve the purpose for which it had been enacted. It had been misused to the hilt by the law enforcing agencies to detain more than 65,000 people, who had nothing to do with terrorism. These lessons remained valid.

The sad episodes of Kargil, Kandahar (involving a hijacked Indian Airlines flight) and the Red Fort should have been good enough to show us our sense of preparedness to deal with emergency situations. But, unfortunately no lessons were learnt and similar lapses were allowed to recur subsequently as in the case of attack on J&K Assembly and Parliament.

At present Pakistan is waging a proxy war against us. The fallout in Afghanistan is imminent in India’s backyard. Therefore, it is imperative for India to take certain decisions in its own interests.

The Government has failed on all fronts. The economy is in shambles. Incidents of farmers committing suicide are on the rise. There is no direction and the government has become rudderless. No citizen is safe in his own house, let alone on the streets.

It is the duty of every Congressman to bring to the notice of the people the failures of the Government. The BJP and its allies are experts in distorting facts. They may go to the people with a different version attacking the Congress party and the Opposition. They are scared of the ensuing Assembly elections in 4 States. The security and the interest of the country should be paramount in the minds of the Congressmen.

It is the Congress which fought for political and economic freedom and built a strong India. Time has come to go to every house to apprise the people of the dangers staring at their face on account of the failures of the present Government and also to tell them that the Indian democracy is in peril and that only the Congress party under Smt. Sonia Gandhi alone can save it.